Category: FIFA

November 7 – After a lengthy campaign for better treatment of its members, the world players’ union FIFpro has dropped its legal bid against FIFA to outlaw football’s transfer system believing it has won significant concessions.

November 3 – You couldn’t make this up. FIFA, under fire in this publication last month via its women’s rankings that showed a lack of women’s development in nations where three Confederation presidents reign, has in the latest edition of its FIFA 1904 magazine not bothered to even publish the women’s rankings page. The men’s rankings were, of course, published.

November 2 – FIFA have concluded a five-year TV deal with public broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) for rights to all its events starting with the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and concluding with the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

November 1 – Tokyo Sexwale, the under-fire South African official who headed FIFA’s doomed Israel-Palestine mediation effort, insists he did exactly what was asked of him and has questioned why his eagerly awaited report was thrown out by FIFA’s all-powerful Council headed by Gianni Infantino.

October 30 – As anticipated, last week’s astonishing decision by FIFA to close down its Middle East mediation initiative has prompted an angry backlash with Palestinian sports officials accusing world football’s governing body of deceit and leaving them in the lurch.

October 30 – The president of the African Football Confederation Ahmad Ahmad has queried CONCACAF’s unity for the region’s 2026 World Cup bid. CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani downplayed the United States’ elimination from the 2018 World Cup as a destabilising factor for his confederation’s bid. Last August Morocco joined the race to land the first 48-team tournament.

October 30 – At the close of the U-17 World Cup in India, All India Football Federation president Praful Patel pitched the country’s bid to stage the U-20 World Cup to the FIFA Council. FIFA president Gianni Infantino dubbed the tournament “a resounding success” but didn’t offer clues about the next U-20 World Cup host. The Bureau of the Council will take a decision early next year.

October 30 – The Confederations Cup, the traditional World Cup warm-up tournament, could eventually be scrapped in its present format and replaced with a revised and far more credible version of the Club World Cup, a much-maligned annual tournament featuring the champion of each Continent but which has not caught on in the way FIFA might have hoped.

October 29 – England’s wonder kids completed a miraculous 5-2 comeback against Spain to lift the U-17 World Cup. Philip Foden, the player of the tournament, and Rhian Brewster, the golden boot, starred in a remarkable second-half comeback, the culmination of a successful first World Cup on Indian soil.

October 27 – After years of delays and buck-passing, FIFA has officially closed down its much-troubled Middle East mediation initiative, a highly provocative move that could enflame tension in the region and seems bound to infuriate the pro-Palestinian lobby like never before.

October 27 – South African activists have urged their compatriot Tokyo Sexwale (pictured centre) to step down as FIFA’s chief Middle East negotiator because of the body’s distinct lack of progress in settling the footballing impasse between Israel and the Palestinians in the occupied territories, specifically the ongoing dispute over Israeli lower-league clubs playing official games on settlements in the West Bank.

October 26 – England made history by reaching their first ever U-17 World Cup final as Rhian Brewster broke Brazilian hearts with a hat-trick in a commanding 3-1 semi-final victory. The Young Lions will face European champions Spain, who eliminated Mali with the same scoreline.